AFTER THE FIRE
by FanWriterWV
Summary: Takes place after Beneath. What if Taylor had survived? Written mostly because I always thought the ending of the second film was too bleak.


_**AFTER THE FIRE**_

NEW YORK CITY, 3978 A.D.

_Taylor was dying, and he knew it. Through his haze of pain he saw a surprised Dr. Zaius looking at him. "Help you?" Zaius scoffed. "Mankind is capable of nothing but destruction!"_

"_You don't understand," Taylor whispered. "It's doomsday…" It was true. Nova was dead, Brent was dead, and nothing mattered now. Taylor leaned forward as his hand fell on the red control crystal that would activate the Alpha-Omega bomb's warhead. There was a white blaze of light, and then everything went black._

THREE DAYS LATER

Dr. Zaius was still confused. Ursus was dead, but the rest of his gorilla army were still alive, still searching the tunnels of the ancient Man's city for any of the strangely dressed humans that might still be alive.

Zaius looked at the body of his former general, now with a sheet draped over it. "I tried to warn you," he softly said. "I told you that thing would kill us all." He looked up at the gaping hole in the cave's ceiling. "I suppose we should thank the Lawgiver it lifted off instead." At least, that was what Zaius supposed had happened. His memory, like that of his soldiers', still wasn't clear. One minute he had been watching in horror as Taylor fell on the weapon's controls, and then…the missile was gone, and so was Taylor's body. So, for that matter, was the body of the female his gorillas said they'd shot, the one Taylor called Nova. Had Taylor somehow managed to escape back to his own tribe during the missing time?

"Sir!" One of the gorillas saluted. "The troops have packed up their gear. They're ready to head back to Ape City, away from this accursed place."

Zaius nodded; it was time to go. "We will tell no one what happened here," he said. "Let our people think that Ursus died as a hero. He will be buried with full honors. And…no one will ever be allowed to go to the Forbidden Zone again, for whatever reason, on pain of death."

"Yes, sir!" The gorilla left to relay Zaius' orders. Zaius took one last look at the ruins of the human place of worship-a travesty of blasphemy-and went to join the gorillas.

SOMEWHERE IN WESTERN EUROPE, ONE YEAR LATER

The time had arrived. A team of doctors wheeled the bodies of a man and a woman down a hospital corridor. Guards were posted along the corridor to keep patients in their rooms. The doctors would have shocked Zaius had he seen them, but so would the guards-for they were both ape and human. An orangutan approached the teams as they entered an examination room. Had Dr. Zira been able to see it, she would have been amazed at how advanced its equipment and surgical implements were compared to her own.

"They're still sedated, Doctor, just like you ordered," one of the female human doctors said. "We've been feeding them intravenously and keeping them on life support systems. As far as anyone else here knows, they're coma victims."

"Good. I want to keep it that way for now." The orangutan, whose name was Dr. Petrax, looked down at Taylor. "Amazing-A human from before the Holocaust. I still can't quite believe it. Well, we'll certainly have a lot to talk about once he is revived." He looked at the human doctor. "That will be all, thank you." As she left, Petrax looked at the remaining doctors. "All right, we've got work to do before they're revived. Let's get to it." He nodded at another orangutan. "Tell the others who came with him that we're ready to begin."

ONE WEEK LATER

Ulma looked down at her hands as she sat next to Taylor. She still couldn't quite believe that the scars she'd been born with were almost healed. She still looked at her face in a mirror every chance she got to compare it with those of the other humans who lived here. She looked almost like them now-even her natural hair, which her people hadn't had for centuries, was starting to grow out. Dr. Petrax was right-she and her two companions who'd helped Taylor and Nova escape the ruins of New York-although they hadn't known it at the time, of course-were almost completely free of the genetic damage that they had been born with.

Ulma had chosen to stay at Taylor's side. She didn't want him to see the face of a stranger, ape or human. And, after she had looked into his unconscious mind several times, Ulma felt that she'd gotten to know Taylor pretty well.

A nurse- a chimpanzee, one who had special clearance from Petrax-came in to check Taylor's vitals. "Still asleep, is he?" she sympathetically asked.

"I keep thinking about what to say to him when he wakes up," Ulma replied. "After what my people put him through…"

"But that wasn't your fault," the chimpanzee pointed out. "After all, you and your friends follow the teachings of…what was his name again?"

"Mendez," Ulma said with reverence. "A great man, a great leader who wanted peace between humans and apes. But a general named Kolp had other ideas. My people lived a lie for nearly two thousand years after Mendez died."

"I'm sure Taylor will understand." The chimpanzee nodded in satisfaction as she checked Taylor's monitors. "You said you had to make it look good, didn't you? Until you could get them out of New York City, that is."

"Yes, we did. Even so…I just hope he isn't permanently damaged by what we did."

ONE MONTH LATER

Taylor sat in his wheelchair, looking out at the hospital grounds. There, in the distance, was the Eiffel Tower, which still looked much as it had in his own time. Around him, human and ape patients alike were resting or being escorted by their nurses and orderlies-also of both species.

"Well, Zira, I guess I found what you were hoping for-a place where our two species could actually live together," Taylor said quietly to himself.

He'd done a lot of healing over the past several weeks, both physically and mentally-the woman named Ulma had seen to that. He still couldn't believe they had actually helped him escape. A final illusion was what she had called it. When he launched the bomb, they used the image of its destructive power to cover their escape.

He was in the European Federation. When the ape rebellion happened after he'd left Earth, the European countries granted equality to their apes as an act of desperation-but it had worked. While North America became a wasteland, apes and humans were able to survive together, in a land of plenty untouched by the bombs that had fallen elsewhere. The humans had avoided turning into mute animals; the apes had kept from slipping into the dark age that their counterparts in America lived in. They'd made it.

"Yes, they did," Ulma said. She looked down at Taylor. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to read your thoughts. I just got so used to it while you were under sedation…"

"That's all right." Taylor shifted in his wheelchair. "You know, I think I'd like to take a walk."

Ulma helped him to his feet. "Nova's learned some more words this week," she said. "Dr. Petrax says that by the end of the year she should be able to talk in complete sentences."

"Felling jealous?" Taylor jibed.

Ulma smiled. "Maybe just a little." She looked down. "I'm glad you're not mad at me."

"Mad at you? You and your friends saved my life." Taylor's expression became moody. "I just wish I could say the same for poor Brent. He came to rescue me and the others."

"I know." Ulma decided it was time to change the subject. "So, where should we go today?"

"I'm feeling adventurous. Let's try the cafeteria. It's been two thousand years since I had a hamburger."

Ulma laughed as they started walking. There really is hope for you now, she thought. And hope for humans and apes, as well.

THE END


End file.
